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award books

It's Voting Time Once Again...

Here is a wonderful way to find some new and different books to read to your children. Each year, a group of Missouri children's librarians get together and select ten books to share with our customers. These nominees have been selected for a variety of reasons including introducing children to diverse themes, cultures, and topics. Personally, I always find them to be great when read aloud. They are written by a variety of authors and illustrators of children's books, including Missouri authors, illustrators, and themes, when possible.

Children - Please Vote!

The Building Block Award is presented annually to the author and illustrator of the picture book voted most popular by preschool children in Missouri’s public libraries. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to read aloud to children from birth through kindergarten.

Here is a list of the ten titles selected for this year. Voting for this award will take place from September 1 through December 31, 2011. Click on this link to find the current Missouri Building Block Nominees.

Kids Vote @ the Library

The Missouri Building Block award is presented annually to the author and illustrator of the picture book voted most popular by children not yet in 1st grade. Each year, 10 books are nominated. In order to be eligible to vote, children must read or listen to at least five of the nominated books. Ballots are available at the circulation desk. Voting will continue through December 31st; however, we ask that children vote only once.

MASL Announces the 2012-2013 Award Nominees!

It's time! It's awards season, folks. We librarians get pretty psyched about this time of year, trying to decide which books may win big! If you are yawning already, I promise to make it worth your while with two words: Truman and Gateway. That's right, the 2012-2013 nominees have been announced!

Children's Literature and The Batchelder Award

Mildred L. Batchelder had a goal to "eliminate barriers to understanding between people of other cultures, races, nations, and languages." A former director of the Association for Library Service to Children, she also worked at various libraries and served thirty years with the American Library Association starting in 1936. Today the Mildred L. Batchelder Award is given yearly to a book that was written in a language other than English in a country other than the U.S., and then translated into English for U.S. publication.

The Silly Side of Science Fiction and Fantasy

The nominees for the 2012 Hugo Awards for science fiction and fantasy were announced recently, and I was pleased, nay elated, to find John Scalzi’s Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue nominated for Best Short Story. Why the outburst of glee? Because SF and fantasy writers often take themselves and the genres just a little too seriously.

Mark Twain Award

On a recent visit to see my grandkids, I learned that my oldest granddaughter was reading The Hunger Games series. She explained that the school librarian had given her the 3-book boxed set. After a little prompting from her mom, I learned that the set was an award for being the only student in her school building to have read all of the Mark Twain Award nominee books. Of course, this former teacher—turned—librarian grandmother was thrilled to hear that news. She was excited to have been able to vote for her favorite.

Award Nominees to Know

I’m assuming that you love to read, and because you love to read, you like to hear about new and upcoming books. Am I right to assume this? Well, if you’re anything like me, you also like to hear about the up and coming award books like Mark Twain, Gateway, and Truman. Yet again this year, we have a wonderful selection of books to choose from.

And the Winner Is...

Drum roll please, because this week is award week for the American Library Association! Each year at the end of January, ALA announces all of the national award-winning titles for both children and teens. Each award honors an author or illustrator for excellence in a different literary category, and we would like to recommend just a few of them to you.